By Dan Alexe, Contributing Editor, New Europe
Turkey is far from meeting the conditions for its citizens to be granted early visa-free travel to the European Union, just 10 days before a deadline for it to meet the requirements.
The EU promised last month to extend visa liberalization to Turkey by the end of June in return for its agreement to take back all illegal migrants who cross to Greece from its shores, provided it fulfilled all the so-called benchmarks.
The executive European Commission is due to report to member states and the European Parliament on May 4 whether Ankara has met the goals. It has set April 30 as a cut-off date for Turkey to pass the necessary measures.
On Thursday, Marta Cygan, a director in the Commission’s migration and home affairs unit, told the European Parliament that Ankara now satisfied only 35 of the 72 conditions in full or almost entirely.
Ankara must also reduce a backlog of asylum applications, grant all refugees access to its labor market, upgrade its visaregime to make it harder for people from countries with “a high migratory risk” to enter, and bring its data protection laws into line with EU standards, among other requirements, all by May 4.
The visa-waiver is part of a package of incentives the EU is offering Turkey to stop migrants piling into boats and making the dangerous voyage to Europe in search of sanctuary or jobs. The EU would also provide up to 6 billion euros for Syrian refugees in Turkey and fast-track Ankara’s EU membership talks.
Turkey’s leaders are warning that the whole migrant deal will collapse if the EU fails to allow Turkish citizens visa-free short stays for travel or business purposes.
“If the European Union does not take the steps it needs to take, if it does not fulfill its pledges, then Turkey won’t implement this agreement,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this month.
But the bloc’s executive European Commission insists the ball is in Ankara’s court, even though Europe is desperate for Turkey to help stem the flow of migrants.
EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said Wednesday that there could be “no visa liberalization if not all benchmarks are met.”
He said Turkey has been making good progress, but suggested that even this pace might not be quick enough.
“If we continue working like this most of the benchmarks will be met,” Avramopoulos said.
“Every minute counts,” he said. “We do not have much time in front of us.”
The European Commission will present a new visa liberalization report on Turkey on May 4. If Ankara has met the 72 conditions that all visa-waiver countries must respect by then, the commission will propose that Turkey be put on the visa-free list. EU nations have promised to endorse that decision by June 30, almost 18 months before the original schedule.
Visa-free travel for Turkey, a nation of 79 million, is contested in many of the 28 EU states, even though Turks would not be allowed to work or stay longer than three months.
Some fear it would open doors to more Muslim migration to a bloc already struggling with the biggest influx of refugees and migrants since World War Two.
More than a million people reached Europe last year, mainly arriving from Turkey to Greek islands in the Aegean. Eurostat said EU states received almost 1.26 million first time asylum applications in 2015, more than double the figure in 2014.
Other obstacles include a condition demanding Turkey lift visa requirements on Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognise.
